industry

HME

  • A Thanksgiving Turkey

    Just hours after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a sweeping Medicare reform bill on Nov. 22, political commentator Al Hunt told comrades on CNN’s “The Capital Gang” that it was appropriate the measure had passed during Thanksgiving week because, he said, this bill “is a real turkey.” While Hunt was addressing his concerns about the gutted benefits and high costs associated with the controversial legislation, which passed the Senate three days later, his quip was particularly fitting for those portions of the package that deal with DME. Though the final version of the bill will require interpretation (as legislative language so often does), the major points on DME are clear: There will be a CPI freeze on DME beginning next year, followed by phase-in…
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  • Letters to the Editor

    Let the Rat Out of the Bag I am offended by [CMS Administrator Tom Scully’s] statement about pressuring the good guys to “rat” out the bad guys (“Q&A with Tom Scully,” HomeCare, October 2003). The good guys have been informing his office for months to years … about the situation in the Houston area. These complaints appear to have fallen on deaf ears until now. The squeeze they are putting on the good guys appears to be an attempt to reduce numbers in the Houston area instead of cleaning up the fraud and abuse. It really appears they do not want the real “rat” out of the bag. If they were “letting checks fly out the window,” with all the complaints from us and other…
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  • Latest HME News

  • Byram Healthcare Completes Ostomy, Diabetes Purchases

    Milford, Conn. Byram Healthcare Centers has acquired the disposable supplies patient bases of three HME providers in western Connecticut, western Pennsylvania and Maryland. These acquisitions include a mix of diabetes, ostomy and urological patients. A Byram spokesperson said two of the three acquired companies asked to remain anonymous. The third, NeighborCare Professionals Pharmacies, is located in Baltimore. For breaking news, go to www.homecaremonday.com, the electronic news service of the home medical equipment industry.
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  • Medicare Reform Bill Passes, Includes Competitive Bidding

    WASHINGTON — After months of intense debate and political infighting, including a pre-dawn vote in the House of Representatives and a day-long showdown in the Senate, Congress passed a sweeping Medicare reform bill in late November. At press time, President Bush was expected to sign the measure into law on Dec. 8. Negotiated in conference committee since the summer, the final version of the reform package is a compromise agreement that gained late favor after endorsement by AARP, the powerful seniors group with 35 million members. The main component of the legislation, which marks the first major overhaul of Medicare in its 38-year history, is a new prescription drug benefit for the 40 million beneficiaries now covered by the vast government program. But the bill’s…
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  • AAHomecare Responds to National Wheeler Dealer Article

    Alexandria, Va. The American Association for Homecare reiterated its opinion that there should be “zero tolerance” for Medicare fraud and abuse involving power wheelchairs, in response to a Nov. 12 Associated Press news article that detailed 50 separate power wheelchair fraud investigations launched as part of the government crackdown known as “Operation Wheeler Dealer.” The AP article noted that the durable medical equipment industry aggressively markets power wheelchairs, adding that the number of Medicare power wheelchair claims rose from about 55,000 in 1999 to almost 170,000 this year. In response, AAHomecare said it views the increase in claims as a positive development. “As wheelchair technology has improved and the beneficiary population has aged, this increase is a clear sign that more and more Americans are…
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  • 2004 Forecast

    The turbulent legislative and regulatory issues that sent home medical equipment providers on a screaming roller-coaster ride this year apparently haven’t affected their buying plans. According to the results of HomeCare’s annual reader survey, HME/DME dealers are forging ahead to 2004 with intentions to buy products in a pattern that has changed little over the past several years. Manual wheelchairs remain in the No. 1 spot on providers’ product shopping list, followed by ambulatory aids and nebulizers, bath safety products and beds and mattresses. But for the first time, power wheelchairs broke into the list’s Top 10 territory, reflecting a general increase in consumer awareness of — and demand for — the products that can improve their daily lives. In fact, providers told us they…
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  • The Outlook for HME: 2004-2008

    Based on a report presented at Medtrade 2003 by Wallace Weeks of The Weeks Group, the following summary looks ahead to market growth, competition and other factors that will affect the HME industry from 2004 to 2008. While the report was prepared before Congress’ passage of a Medicare reform bill that includes competitive bidding and reimbursement cuts within this period, the good news, according to Weeks, is that the industry has plenty to be optimistic about. To put the long-range preview in perspective, Weeks first highlights the “wide-angle” view, which is an overview of what the industry may go through in the next five years. The “telephoto” view zooms in on specific segments of the industry to examine the results we could see by 2008….
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  • Cool Show, Hot Topic

    How many technicians does it take to transform an ordinary Mercedes sport utility vehicle into a handicap-accessible street rod? Try five — and in seven days, with a $3,000 budget. At least, that’s the case when the transformation occurs on The Discovery Channel’s hit program Monster Garage. Headed by Jesse James, a custom motorcycle builder and designer and owner of West Coast Choppers in Long Beach, Calif., the crew included Warren Chalker, a welder and engineer with Lancaster, Calif.-based standing-device manufacturer Prime Engineering; Scott Deacon, president of La Canada, Calif.-based vehicle-modification company Advanced Mobility; Mike Montenegro, automotive designer and owner of Hesperia, Calif.-based Montenegro Designs; Ray Paprota, a paraplegic NASCAR Craftsmen Truck driver from Birmingham, Ala.; and Ed Sandoz, a quadriplegic mechanical engineer from Upton,…
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  • CMS Eases Supplier Number Moratorium

    The home care industry recently received some positive news. Thomas A. Scully, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, authorized the National Supplier Clearinghouse to begin approving applications for those providers who have submitted their enrollment application and have passed their site visit, signaling an ease in the provider-number moratorium. This development is the culmination of months of hard work by the entire home care industry, and marks a significant victory for law-abiding durable medical equipment providers and the patients we serve every day! Earlier this fall, CMS announced “Operation Wheeler Dealer” to help prevent Medicare fraud and abuse. The initiative came on the heels of an isolated Houston-based wheelchair scam, in which corrupt doctors submitted Medicare claims for power wheelchairs that were…
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  • Testing, Testing

    While everyone focused on wheelchairs and Operation Wheeler Dealer in September, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services nonchalantly slipped the
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  • A Credit to the Profession

    As a nursing home administrator in the 1960s, Donald H. Adler realized that patients being discharged from his facility did not have appropriate home medical equipment. “I was loaning patients wheelchairs, commodes and walking aids … so I decided to address the need,” Adler explains. He founded Care Medical Equipment, Inc. in 1970 and, since then, has led the company to eight branch locations in Oregon and Washington State with more than 300 employees. But building a business is not the reason Adler was chosen as a recipient of HomeCare‘s HomeCaring Award for 2003. According to the panel of award judges, Adler has served his communities, patients, employees and the HME industry at large unselfishly for 33 years, as well as devoting countless personal hours,…
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  • What Do We Do Now?

    Those of us at the Florida Association of Medical Equipment Suppliers were feeling rather proud of ourselves. We had the audacity to sue the State of Florida over competitive bidding for Medicaid DME and actually won!
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